Center for Gifted Education hosts Korean Nobel Project recipients

Visiting W&MThe College of William and Mary's Center for Gifted Education hosted 34 visitors from Korea Jan. 5-11.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Teaching and learningThe group of administrators, educators, and students from Korea came to Williamsburg to exchange ideas about teaching and learning through a variety of scientific and mathematical curricular concepts.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Top scholarsVisiting students went through a rigorous selection process to participate in the Nobel Project of Korea. The top 0.01 percent of all students from the Chungcheongnamdo Province were selected to participate in the visit to the College.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Korean Nobel ProjectThe visit was part of the Korean Nobel Project, a project helping to stimulate the minds and develop the skills of Korea's future global leaders.
Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Administrators,
educators, and students from Korea came to Williamsburg to exchange ideas about
teaching and learning through a variety of scientific and mathematical
curricular concepts. The visit was part of the Korean Nobel Project, a project
helping to stimulate the minds and develop the skills of Korea’s future global
leaders.

Visiting students went
through a rigorous selection process to participate in the Nobel Project of
Korea. The top 0.01 percent of all students from the Chungcheongnamdo Province were
selected to participate in the visit to the College. In addition, the teachers
and administrators who participated have built successful mentor relationships
with these students over time.

The Korean students
engaged in authentic learning experiences through high-level and interactive
mathematical and scientific curriculum. The students learned about spatial
reasoning, fractals, genetics, force and acceleration, and the chemistry behind
crime scene investigation in conjunction with the William and Mary gifted
education curricular and instructional models.

The teachers received
professional development on best practices to teach high-ability and gifted students
using the William and Mary teaching and learning modules. The Korean teachers
learned and practiced multiple teaching strategies that combine high-level
content with problem-based learning and the development of conceptual
understanding.

These topics were
presented in conjunction with William and Mary curricular units of study and
the Integrated Curriculum Model. Teaching and learning took place at the new
School of Education building on the William and Mary campus as well as the
science and computer laboratories of Small and Millington Halls. The groups also
interacted with classes of students and teachers at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s
School for Government and International Studies in Richmond for a day. Finally, the Korean visitors toured Jamestown
Settlement, downtown Richmond, and Colonial Williamsburg, enjoying part of the
rich history that Virginia has to offer.

The William and Mary
curricular units for gifted and high-ability students are models of best
practices and are known and implemented around the world. The units are grounded
in the Integrated Curriculum Model, which is designed to respond to gifted
learners' characteristics of precocity, intensity, and complexity through its
three dimensions of advanced content, higher level processes and product
development, and interdisciplinary concepts, issues, and themes.